Election Diary, Nov. 18th-24th

Dear Reader,

Ahead of the election I’ve decided to use the weekend newsletter to give you an overview of the key developments of the week.

Monday, November 18th 

The week started with the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service announcing that he was going to stand for election as a representative for the CDU. Thomas Haldenwang headed the BfV for six years, where he was best known for investigating the AfD on suspicion of right-wing extremism. Earlier this year, I wrote about the creepy powers given to German spies to snoop on people for their political opinions. Stranger still is the fact that the bosses of these spy agencies are political appointments. It was no secret that Haldenwang was a member of the CDU. In that regard, you can understand that the AfD saw his investigation against them as politically motivated. After all, they are the CDU's main competitor on the right. The faintest whiff of such an ulterior motive risks damaging trust in state institutions. But this fish …